Category: Energy Matters

Scientists working for Ceravision, a company based in Milton Keynes, in Britain, have designed a new form of lamp that eliminates the need for electrodes, reported The Economist (8/9/2007, p.4). Their device uses microwaves to transform electricity into light. It consists of a relatively small lump of aluminium oxide into which a hole has been bored, with a gas-capsule, inside. The lot is bombarded with microwaves generated from the same sort of device that powers a microwave oven. As electrons accelerate in the electric field, they gain energy that they pass on to the atoms and molecules of the gas as they collide with them, creating a glowing plasma. The resulting light is bright, and the process is energy-efficient.

Energy efficiency greater than 50 per cent: Indeed, whereas traditional light bulbs emit just 5 per cent of their energy as light, and fluorescent tubes about 15 per cent, the Ceravision lamp has an energy efficiency greater than 50 per cent. The lamp’s small size makes them compatible to light-emitting diodes but the new lamp generates much brighter light than those semiconductor devices do.

Cheap, and does not need mercury: A single microwave generator can be used to power several lamps. Another environmental advantage of the new design is that it does not need mercury, a highly toxic metal found in most of the bulbs used today, including energy-saving fluorescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes and high-pressure bulbs used in projectors. And Ceravision also reckons it should be cheap to make. With lighting accounting for some 20 per cent of electricity use worldwide, switching to a more efficient system could both save energy and reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

The Economist, 8/9/2007, p. 4

Professor Andrew Makers, director, ARC Centre for Solar Energy Systems Australian, National University argued that "Contrary to the assertions of Peter Lang (Letters, July 31, August 27), a renewable energy future was eminently feasible and no more costly than other low-emission technologies", in a letter to The Canberra Times (30/80/07, p. 24).

Management of renewable energy: The intermittency of some (but not all) forms of renewable energy could already be managed at modest cost by:

• demand management (shifting loads from night to day);

• wide geographic dispersal (to minimise the effect of local cloud);

• technology diversity (photovoltaics, solar thermal, wind and wave);

• dispatchability (biomass. hydro and geothermal can generate at any time);

• storage (hot water, hot rocks, pumped hydroelectric storage etc); and

• the judicious use of natural gas.

It would be several decades before renewables dominate energy markets, allowing time to develop additional solutions.

Renewables competitive: The solar and wind energy industries were doubling in size every two years and costs were falling. Wind, hydro, solar heaters and biomass from waste were already fully competitive with both nuclear energy and the predicted future cost of zero-emission fossil fuel. The cost of photovoltaics on building roofs would soon fall below the retail price of electricity in many countries.

Solar 100 times cleaner than fossil fuel or nuclear: The mass of mined material and waste per unit of energy produced was 100 times smaller for solar than for fossil and nuclear energy systems. Widely dispersed renewable energy generation was of low utility to terrorists. There were minimal impacts from accidents, no energy resource wars and no risks of nuclear weapons proliferation. Renewable energy was a good solution" he argued.

The Canberra Times, 30/8/2007, p. 24

Not reliant on rain anymore: "The desalination plant will deliver the single largest boost to Melbourne’s water supply since the Thomson Dam was constructed. It was the biggest water project of its time, and it was built some 25 years ago. This desalination plant is an equivalent infrastructure project to the creation of the Thomson Dam. It will provide more than one-third of Melbourne’s yearly water supply without relying on rainfall in our catchments. We are putting the money into this particular piece of infrastructure, this desalination plant that will deliver water to Melbourne, which means we will not have to rely for one-third of Melbourne’s water on rainfall," she added.

Reference: Kaye Darveniza, Member for Northern Victoria, Legislative Council, Victoria, 18 July 2007.

Erisk Net, 24/7/2007

Cool setup: "I’ve already recorded two tracks for my upcoming solo album in here. It’s just great to know that it’s actually a reality, I am now recording in my solar-powered studio for my next project. It’s so cool to see it all falling into place."

Sustainable studio: Built with recycled materials – second-hand basketball court flooring, recycled sound-deadening boards and rock-wool insulation – the studio set-up isn’ just an example of quaint DIY, but a functional carbon-neutral unit. According to Peckham – who along with his band mates had previously built an ad hoc solar-powered sound system and wind-powered cinema, mounted to their self-converted vegetable oil-powered van – the studio can, in favourable conditions, operate for eight to 10 hours a day, five days a week.

The Age, 6/7/2007

Scientists believed depleted fish stocks have removed competition for jellyfish, allowing them to breed to plague proportions, reported The Courier Mail (18/6/2007, p.13).

Plagues of stingers: Jellyfish blooms, where the creatures multiply rapidly into untold millions:

• clog water intakes on ships and power stations;

• ruin fishing nets; and

• can wreck engines.

Dr Kylic Pitt, from the Griffith University School of Environment, said Japan was experiencing plagues of the giant jellyfish nemopilema. "At more than a metre wide and up to 200kg, they become caught in fishing gear and damage boat engines and mechanical equipment," Pitt said.

Industrial implications: The Port of Brisbane was experiencing blooms of catostylus or blue blubber jellyfish. In 2004, thousands of blue blubbers stopped the P&O cruise ship Pacific Sky from sailing from Brisbane after they were sucked into a water intake. A jellyfish bloom also shut down a coastal power station in Manila in the Philippines in 2000. A survey of Lake Illawarra, near Wollongong in NSW, found it contained 18,000 tonnes of blue blubbers.

The Courier Mail, 18/6/2007, p. 13